UPDATE< UPDATE< UPDATE

My brother found out that the spider  is a Spinyback Orbweaver Spider.  Good going Google!

Our next boat trip was to Tween Waters Marina.  Tween Waters is located on Captiva Island.  The trip there was not bad, not to windy, not much traffic, just the way I like it.  The marina is about a 1 ½ hour drive from our place.    As we were traveling along, we did pass several of these boats

Catamaran

They are called catamarans.  They have 2 separate hulls, almost like a pontoon boat, if you know what those are.  We looked at these when we were looking for our retirement boat.  The Admiral didn’t particularly care for them so…..

We were passed by about 5 of them.  They must have been having a convention or something and were all heading back home.

As we neared the marina, I caught a picture of this bird

Mama and her babies

See the two or three little babies in it.  Ahhhhh….cute!  We also passed this boat

Great Harbor

This is a 37 Great Harbor.  We fell in love with this boat the first time we saw it at a boat show on the East coast many, many moons ago.  Big heavy duty railings, full size fridge, nice boat.  But now after traveling and living on boats, I find I prefer a boat that can get up and go if need be and most of these boats have small engines.  Good on fuel economy but not so much in the speed department.  Kind of a no go show boat ;).

We also passed this boat

Funny place to park

High and dry.  Probably left over from Irma.

So we made it in and got tied up,

All ready to Party!

luckily they didn’t have us back in the weeds like we were last time we were here.  This will be a good thing when we try to leave in a few days.  Winds are going to be 20 MPH with 30 MPH gusts!

Whew! It’s windy!

The first night we have our pot luck on the dock.  There was this large boat tied up there.

Big Burger (and not the kind you eat)

What the heck is that white thing in the window?  (This is where my zoom lens comes in handy)

Fluffy!

Oh!  A stuffed tiger.  Haha, ya never know what people will put on their boats.

But wait a minute, there is something else weird here

Hmmmmm….

Anyone see what it is?

Running light

There by the roof line….

Yup, they have the red running light on the starboard side.  It should be on the port.  What????  Finally Gary can’t stand it any longer and goes over to the owner to tell him about his lights

You say what?

What’s wrong with my lights?  Oh, well there is an electrician on board because we are having trouble with our electronics.  Huh? I’m thinking.  No wonder he is confused.  He doesn’t know if he is from California 

Or Tennessee 

Then the guy says, well it doesn’t really matter if the lights are on the wrong side because they don’t go out much at night and if they do, they turn off the lights and just have a guy out on the bow with a flash light so the other boats can see them.  Holy crap!  I hope we aren’t out in the water the same time this guys is, day or night!

Every morning, early in the morning, the fishermen are getting their boats ready to take people from the resort out fishing.  There is this bird that is helping himself to the bait.

Thanks for the snack buddy

He knows how to get a free lunch….or breakfast as the case may be.  Then when the fishermen come back and clean the fish, the pelicans get a free meal too.  It’s pretty funny to see all the pelican swarm into the marina just before the fishermen start coming back.  You’d think they had done this a time or two .

We had some mimosas and bloodies in the morning.  Breakfast of Champions ;).  A few of us were discussing this boat

Anchored Houseboat

Wondering what that thing was on the back was.  Looks like an out board motor.  Then the discussion was…is it a get home motor or the main propulsion?

I think it is the main propulsion….what do you think?

Later that afternoon we saw a boat we recognized

Hey! That boat looks familiar

It’s Front Page from White Bear Lake

That night we went out to dinner at one of the restaurants at the resort.  It was starting to get pretty windy so we wanted to take a look at the beach

Resort beach

Lookin a little rough out there.  Good thing we are tucked behind a bigger boat.  They’ll take the brunt of the waves tonight and make for good sleeping for Gary and I.

When I went to check out, I found a white Smokey!

Aaaaah

Friendly too!  So cute….I miss my kitty 

We started our trek home and the winds were everything the weather apps had predicted.  The waves were hitting the bow, shooting up the windshield and pouring off the canvas

Batten down the hatches!

A friend of ours took a picture of the boat in one of the calmer areas of the ride home

Touch of Class beating down the waves

We made it as far as the “miserable mile” and noticed

What’s Missing?

This is where BearTrax south used to be anchored.

Beartrax II

The hurricane must have been too much for it.

Well, we made it home, a little salty, but in one piece.  We’ll take off our gear, wash the boat and wait for the next adventure.